XATTR structure for BIOS filesystem #2

[Claus Brod <clausb@hpbeo79.bbn.hp.com>]

>   Most device drivers just seem to test if the rwflag is non-zero to check
> if a write call is wanted, although my documentation (german Profibuch) says
> explicitly a write call has to set rwflag=1. If one could rely on this fact,
> it would be easy to implement modes 2-3 to report the m/a-t/d fields (c-t/d
> is unlikely to change :-), if not, you'd have to face the fact that the
> device driver would interpret this as a write call.

Not too bad an idea. I'd suggest the following "calling convention":

- call datime in mode 0, store return value
- call datime in mode 2
- call datime in mode 0; compare with previous result; if the results
  differ, call datime in mode 1 with the old value
  
This way, you make sure that even old drivers will not permanently
change access times because they don't know about mode 2 and 3.

--clausb@hpbeo79.bbn.hp.com-----------------------------------------------
Claus Brod, MDD, HP Boeblingen      Magic is real unless declared integer.
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